Rescuers scour debris after Spain train crash kills 77

Rescuers, investigators and police work at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela on July 24, 2013. Rescuers continued to scour the smoking wreckage of tangled steel early Thursday after the train hurtled off the tracks in northwestern Spain killing at least 77 people and injuring 143
(AFP)

A picture taken on July 24, 2013 shows derailed cars at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela. Rescuers continued to scour the smoking wreckage of tangled steel early Thursday after the train hurtled off the tracks in northwestern Spain killing at least 77 people and injuring 143.
(AFP)

Rescuers tend to a victim next to a derailed car at the site of a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela on July 24, 2013. The train hurtled off the tracks in northwestern Spain killing 69 passengers and injuring 143 as carriages crumpled into each other in a smoking wreckage of tangled steel.
(AFP)

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AFP) – Rescuers continued to scour the smoking wreckage of tangled steel early Thursday after a train hurtled off the tracks in northwestern Spain killing at least 77 people and injuring 143.

Emergency workers have recovered 73 bodies from the wreckage of the train while four other victims died in hospital, a spokesman for the Galicia regional high court told AFP.

Four carriages overturned in the smash, smoke billowing from the remnants, as bodies were lain out under blankets along the tracks.

The wagons piled into each other and folded up like an accordion. One was ripped apart by the force of the smash, one of its ends pushed upwards into the air.

Disaster struck at 8:42 pm (1842 GMT) as the train carrying 218 passengers and four staff was about to enter Santiago de Compostela station in the northwestern region of Galicia.

Francisco Otero, 39, who was inside his parents' home just beside the section of the track where the accident happened, said he "heard a huge bang. As if there had been an earthquake."

"The first thing I saw was the body of a woman. I had never seen a corpse before. But above all what caught my attention was that there was a lot of silence, some smoke and a small fire," he told AFP.

"My neighbours tried to pull people who were trapped inside the carriages with clubs and they eventually got them out with a hand saw. It was unreal."

The train had left Madrid and was heading for the northwestern town of Ferrol as the Galicia region was preparing celebrations in honour of its patron saint James.

A witness told radio Cadena Ser that carriages overturned several times on a bend and came to a halt piled up on each other.

Public television TVE said the train may have derailed because it was speeding at the time of the accident but a spokesman for state railway company Renfe said it was too soon to say what caused the accident.

"There is an investigation underway and we have to wait. We will know what the speed is very soon when we consult the train's black box," a Renfe spokesman said.

The accident happened on a stretch of high-speed track about four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the main train station in Santiago de Compostela, the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.

The train was the Alvia model which is able to adapt between high-speed and normal tracks.

Emergency services workers in red jackets tended to injured passengers lying on a patch of grass as ambulance sirens wailed in the background.